MENETBIES' WHEATEAB. 113 



288, Mr. Brooks remarks, — ^'The birds I mistook for Saxicola oenanthe 

 are certainly *S'. saltatrix, which, is a larger bird, and of a purer and 

 lighter brownish grey above; but the great distinction is the colour 

 of the under wing coverts, which are unspotted white in S. saltatrix, 

 and black and white in S. cenanthe." 



Captain J. Hayes Lloyd ("Ibis," 1873, p. 410,) says this bird is 

 very common in the province of Kattiawar, Western India. It is in- 

 cluded in the birds of Amoorland by MiddendorfF ("Sibirische E,eise"), 

 and there is a long account of it in Schrenck's "Vogel des Amur 

 Landes," p. 356, It does not appear to occur in China, Japan, nor 

 the island of Formosa, (Swinhoe, P.Z.S., 1863.) 



This bird in Siberia, having been fully described by Schrenck, 

 Radde only adds that the wing in his example measured from 3" 8" 

 to 3" 9'". The beak was considerably longer — T" long. It appears 

 earlier than CRnanthe. On Tarei-Nor the first stragglers appeared on 

 the 29th. of March. In the Selinga Valley sixty versts north of 

 Kjachta, he saw the first on April 8th., 1857. In the high plains 

 of Tunka they were seen as late as the 23rd. of April in 1859. In 

 the birds killed on the 23rd. of August, at Kulussutajefsk, the 

 feathers of the breast were moulting. The song of the species begins 

 with a croaking note followed by a piping. 



Head, nape, and back down to the rump, and wing coverts, a 

 mixture of buff with olivaceous green; rump and basal half of tail 

 pure white. Wings brown, the primaries after the fourth lightly, 

 and the secondaries more deeply bordered with the same colour as 

 the back, but brighter, the same tint as the fringe being shewn 

 where the colour of the back passes into the white of the rump. As 

 usual in all the Wheatears I have described, the two middle tail 

 feathers are black after the first third from base. Throat, neck, and 

 lower part of abdomen, dirty white; the chest and upper part of the 

 abdomen, under wing and tail coverts, light bufi". 



The colours above described of the feathers of the body, are pro- 

 duced by tint at the extremities of the feathers only. The real 

 colour of all the feathers below the surface is black, like that of leuco- 

 tnela, a point well worthy of attention in looking at the affinities of 

 these birds, and estimating how far their variations in colour may be 

 owing to climatic causes and mode of living. 



The feathers covering the ears are a darker buff, with a light line 

 extending over them from the angle of the eye. Feet black, the 

 hinder claw more strongly curved than the anterior ones; beak horn 

 coloured. 



I am indebted for the bird from which my drawing is taken, to the 



VOL. II. Q 



